Recreational vehicles, such as motorcycles, or off-road vehicles such as all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and snowmobiles, are widely used for recreational purposes. These vehicles might be used on both roads and trails, or only on trails. The trails often pass over a mixture of private and public properties, which can extend for hundreds of miles in many directions, and through different areas. Such trails generally extend through rural areas, but can connect to gas stations, restaurants, bars, maintenance locations, scenic areas, and other points of potential interest to outdoor adventurers.
Currently, clubs in areas where such trails exist maintain the trails on which such off-road vehicles are used. For example, a snowmobile club in a particular geographical area will maintain a relationship with the owners of the lands through which the trails pass, and will monitor and maintain the trail conditions (e.g., by monitoring the snow and trail conditions, maintaining signs, clearing obstacles, etc.). That club generally also will create a map that can be purchased by visitors to the area. The map will generally include points of interest in the area, and advertisements and coupons associated with the businesses on the map. Those maps can be sold at gas stations, bars, restaurants, and online for use by riders who plan to visit the area. The cost of the map and the cost of the advertisements are used to fund the club's upkeep of the trail system in that area.
This arrangement is convenient for upkeep of trails, but can be inconvenient to trail users. There are a number of reasons for this. For example, trail maps are generally organized by region, and riders may wish to travel among a number of regions whose maps are maintained by different clubs. Furthermore, trail riders may wish to have coordinated maps of points of interest that are not limited to the regions covered by a particular club, and not limited those businesses that choose to advertise with that club.
In connection with these difficulties, trail riders will often opt to purchase and download an electronic copy of the trail map, and plan their routes prior to starting that trip. However, once that trip is planned, the user will typically print out the trail map for use on the recreational vehicle for use.
In addition, recreational vehicle usage, because it typically occurs in off-road, rural areas, may cause a rider to become stranded in a location remote from any other individual, and far from a maintenance facility for that vehicle. For example, in the case of a snowmobile, a user may have an equipment malfunction or other issue far from a repair shop, or even from a road. In such cases, even if that rider had a cell phone with them (and even if that rider had service in the rural area where such a maintenance issue occurs) it may be difficult to diagnose problems with the recreational vehicle.
Beyond these existing issues in recreational vehicle usage and navigation, there is also no convenient way to coordinate route plans among riders, despite the fact that it is common to take such trips in groups. Accordingly, improvements in the rider experience, and in vehicle integration with the rider experience, are desired.
In one illustrated embodiment of the present disclosure, an interactive system for use in connection with recreational vehicle usage includes a server system. The server system includes an off-road trail database containing trail data, trail condition information, and points-of-interest information, as well as a trip mapping system accessible by any of a plurality of riders, the trip mapping system allowing a rider to create a planned route based on the data in the off-road trip database and navigate the planned route. The server system further includes a trail maintenance interface accessible by users affiliated with an authorized group to edit at least a portion of the trail data, trail condition information, and points-of-interest information associated with the authorized group. The server system includes a location data management system configured to receive location data, the location data management system allowing a rider to publish his or her location information to one or more other riders within the mapping system. The server system further includes a user feedback interface configured to receive trip data from riders for publication to one or more other riders using the interactive system, the trip data including information describing an actual route and user data associated with the actual route.
In another illustrated embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of facilitating usage of a recreational vehicle includes receiving, from users affiliated with a plurality of authorized groups, trail data, trail condition information, and points-of-interest information from areas affiliated with the authorized groups, respectively. The method further includes receiving a request from a user device to define a planned off-road route in one or more of the areas, and generating a map associated with the planned off-road route, the map including trail condition information and points-of-interest information received. The method also includes receiving location information from a communications device at a location of a recreational vehicle operated by the user during travel along the planned off-road route, and publishing the location information to one or more other users based on permissions set by the user. The method includes receiving user feedback information associated with the planned off-road route from the user.
In yet another illustrated embodiment of the present disclosure, an application embodied on a computer-readable medium is disclosed that is executable on a computing device and includes program instructions that, when executed, are configured to cause the computing device to receive user input requesting an off-road route, the user input including one or more ride parameters. The computing device is also configured to define an off-road route based at least in part on the one or more ride parameters and trail condition data received from one or more third-party sources, and present the off-road route to the user via a map display, including presenting a plurality of route variations to the user, the route variations including display of one or more ride parameters of the route variations compared to the off-road route. The computing device is further configured to receive user selection of a desired off-road route for traversal.
In still another illustrated embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions is disclosed that, when executed, perform a method for integrating rider experience with recreational vehicle performance. The method includes receiving from a user a selection of a planned route for a recreational vehicle at a computing device associated with the recreational vehicle, and receiving at the computing device, via a communication interface connected to a control unit of a recreational vehicle, data regarding operation of the recreational vehicle. The method further includes displaying a user interface to a user, the user interface including information associated with the planned route and at least a portion of the data regarding operation of the recreational vehicle, and communicating data to a remote system from the computing device, and at least a portion of the data regarding operation of the recreational vehicle. The method also includes receiving from the remote system one or more instructions for display to the user regarding maintenance or repair tasks to be performed on the recreational vehicle.